I have had a handful of requests that the Arch Linux Handbook be made available for the Kindle platform. It seemed like an odd request, given that the latest version of the Beginners’ Guide is already freely available in electronic format online. However, I had some free time this week and tried the conversion. It wasn’t difficult and I uploaded a version of the Handbook to the Kindle app store. I’ve helped publish other books to Kindle, so I already knew the process.
I received an e-mail from Amazon Customer Service to the following effect:
During a review of your KDP submission(s), we found content that is freely available on the web. You can do an online search for the content inside your book(s) to discover which sites are offering the content for free. Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright holder has their work claimed and sold by anyone else.
To confirm you have publishing rights to and control where you distribute the book(s), please provide all of the following information:
1. The URLs for all websites where this content is published
2. An explanation as to why the content is available onlineIf the books are in the public domain, please confirm this and include the information you used to make this determination. We may request additional information to confirm the public domain status.
Please respond within 5 days to title-submission@amazon.com, and include the title and ID of your books in your reply. Your book has been moved to a blocked status on your bookshelf and will not be available for sale in the Kindle store until we receive the documentation requested.
Sure, no problem. I responded to explain that it was freely redistributable under the Free Documentation License:
This content is indeed freely available on the web at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide although I have done a certain amount of editing to get it into its current format.
However, this freely available content is published under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later. (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) which explicitly states:
“The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document “free” in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.”
Their response makes me sound like some kind of criminal:
Hello,
We’ve reviewed the information you provided and have decided to block these books from being sold in the Kindle Store. The books closely match content that is freely available on the web and we are not confident that you hold exclusive publishing rights. This type of content can create a poor customer experience, and is not accepted. As a result, we have blocked the books listed below from being sold in the Kindle Store.
Arch Linux Handbook 3.0 by Phillips, Dusty (EDITOR) (ID: 2884216)
Please be advised that you must hold exclusive publishing rights for books that closely match content that is freely available on the web. If your catalog continues to contain books that fail to comply with these conditions or do not meet our Content Guidelines, your account may be terminated.
The content guidelines applicable to all Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) publishers can be found here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2TOZW0SV7IR1U
Best regards,
Megan B.
Amazon.com
Your feedback is helping us build Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.
I was insulted and hurt by this message. It’s arrogant and it is confrontational. It makes no effort to address the specifics of the e-mail. But I cheered up at the end, or at least I laughed, “Customer-Centric Company”? Don’t advertise what you aren’t.
The original message made no mention of the fact that I should have “exclusive” publishing rights. It even said public domain work was acceptable. I have published Creative Commons books that are freely available online on the Kindle before (although they are a non-commercial creative commons license, so we still have “exclusive” rights to publish on Kindle).
In other news, the Arch Linux Handbook can be downloaded in .mobi format, free of charge, from http://archlinux.ca/arch_linux_handbook_3.mobi
Source:
http://archlinux.me/dusty/2012/09/09/arch-linux-handbook-for-kindle/